May Day in Berlin
What a relief to attend a political event, with other persons of Middle Eastern descent, not about religion, but labor.
Archived entries for Jews
Gamers Against Prejudice
Even though the English could use some work, the irony is as welcome as the tolerance. April 10th, Berlin.
Out of the Ghetto
The February edition of Pagine Ebraiche is now out. Pictured above is an author interview, centered around the publication of Israel vs. Utopia. The title is “From the Venice Ghetto to Rishon Le Zion”, in reference to my family’s greater path of migration to Ottoman Palestine. It’s the first of two pieces of Italian press on the book, the second of which is forthcoming next month.
There are a couple of errors in the profile, but they’ve since been corrected. It’s an otherwise terrific piece, which, most importantly, gave a certain member of my family, extremely self-conscious of our Italian heritage, an enormous amount of pleasure to read. Granted, his Italian is about as rotten as mine, but still good enough to get the gist of an 850 + word newspaper article.
Star Apartment
When people talk about San Francisco’s Richmond District, they generally don’t talk about Jews. It’s far more likely that the area’s excellent selection of Asian restaurants and Russian groceries will come first. As they should. The food is tremendous, amongst the best the city has to offer.
Nevertheless, there are four synagogues in the greater neighborhood, and it’s easier than anywhere else I’ve lived on the West Coast to pick up a package of Elite Turkish coffee or a bag of Bamba. The customers for these products are primarily Russians who relocated to the United States from Israel.
The one thing you don’t see are Magen Davids like this, which Jennifer noticed as we walked down 24th avenue last week, towards the apartment we’ll be subletting here until September. If you look closely, there’s a menorah to the right. It makes you think you’re in New York, not San Francisco.
Always Outsiders
His English isn’t very good, but the guy sure knows how to communicate with dogs. Whenever he sees me taking Pixel out for a walk, Antonello turns into a magnet. Within seconds, Pixel is at his feet, wagging his tail, as though he and our doorman have known each other for years.
However, get on the subject of politics, and Antonello is a completely different beast. Spying my camera the other day, he asked if he could take a look. Not realizing it was still on, I handed it to him, displaying this campaign poster. “I am Lega Nord,” he said rather nervously.
One of Italy’s biggest rightist parties, and a member of the present governing coalition, the Northern League, as it is called in English, is well-known for its anti-immigrant platform. “What interests you about this poster?” Not knowing how to put it, I replied “I’m Jewish. The refugee ship evokes memories.”
Antonello cleared his throat. Then, after a moment’s silence, he began to speak again. “You Jews are alright,” he stated, looking me right in the eye. “You people work hard, you study, you obviously have money. But these Africans and Muslims, they’re lazy and they’re poor. The come to Italy and cause lots of problems.”
I don’t know why I expected otherwise. By the time I figured out how to formulate a proper response in Italian, Antonello was gone, headed down the hallway towards Viale Andrea Dorea. If only I’d worked a little faster, to remind him that in Italy Jews aren’t foreigners, that we’ve been here for well over 2000 years.
Who Stole The Soul?
It looks like a promo pic from classic hip-hop record. The kind the publicist used to slide in the sleeve of a 12″. These Haredim look so positively lost in their own thoughts, they might as well be stoned.
What these poor guys were doing sporting their Sunday best (not quite, but you get the idea) on a May day in which temperatures reached well past 100 fahrenheit in Zurich is beyond me.
Merlot Shoah
Walk three blocks in either direction from our home, and the discourse is the same.
Genocide is bad, freedom for Jews and Palestinians, good. The local used book store carries vintage Israeli vinyl, while bumper stickers decry Israeli foreign policy.
The interesting thing about all of this isn’t that it’s not recognized as a conversation between neighbors. It’s that records like the one pictured above are not appreciated for their irony.